Would you install modules on a north-facing roof in Charlotte?
Turns out, it’d probably be a smart economic decision, if the roof-pitch is 2/12 or shallower. I know this based on analysis run by Folsom Labs within its solar design software HelioScope. In minutes, co-founder Paul Grana could input specific information about a potential system and receive calculations about its viability.
So when conventional knowledge would lead you to balk, denying your company additional revenue and your client more robust energy production, software stands to correct misconceptions—and mistakes.
Aurora Solar, for instance, accelerates permitting by checking system designs for NEC compliance. In seconds, it runs hundreds of checks and exports a single-line diagram for use in the permitting process. During the design phase, shading analysis ensures that the celebrated oak tree in a customer’s front yard doesn’t obscure modules too much.
Dozens of design variations can be made easily in Aurora and other software programs, leading to the design of a highly optimized system in a sliver of the time it would have taken without software.
It’s a disservice to you and your customers if you haven’t at least investigated solar software. In the last two years, software innovation has exploded in the solar industry. The tools are getting better and more diverse, incorporating solar workflow, LiDAR data, drone imagery, custom weather data and utility rate optimization.
Moreover, software can help ensure quality installations, supporting the industry as a whole. Yet there are still thousands of installers using CAD programs and Excel to make important design decisions, according to ENACT CEO Deep Chakraborty.
Why?
I believe this is a common excuse: You’re a small organization and software will be too expensive to buy and too difficult to learn. More than 100 companies on this year’s Top Solar Contractors List employ 10 or fewer people, and a lot of solar software out there is specifically built for you, the busy, frugal solar company.
“Ultimately, we want to deliver a really intuitive, easy-to-use software application that doesn’t sacrifice accuracy or rigor in the underlying calculations,” said Conlan O’Leary, CEO of Sighten. “That’s done through a painstaking design process and constant customer interaction, where we make sure everything is easy to use.”
Most software providers offer a free trial run of their programs, which are based on the cloud through a subscription model and do not require physical software. This is their grab at you, to get you hooked with the ease and power of modern computing. And once you’re addicted, subscriptions can be as low as $100 per month for several users.
Dozens of software engineers go to work every day, inputting data and developing impossibly complex algorithms so your job can be simple: sell more solar. I’d encourage you to give software a try.
Mike Dershowitz, founder and managing director of MODsolar, said it takes a typical user one to two hours of training and about 10 real-world proposals before they’re comfortable.
“The biggest suggestion I have for incorporating a new tool is to take old proposals that you’ve done in Excel, or what have you, and re-do them in the new tool, and then compare the results,” Deshowitz said. “That’s a powerful exercise for the average employee because they will really see the differences in where certain numbers are.”
MODsolar is part of a new breed of software that includes functionalities cutting across the range of company needs, from customer relations to system design to operations management. These programs can be customized and ultimately aim to make the sales process smoother.
I believe in the power of solar software, and you should, too. (To never miss great content about solar software, please subscribe to our enewsletters.)
Pamela Cargill says
Software can definitely be a part of an overall strategy run a more competitive business. However, after researching available speciality solar software tools and surveying many solar installers, the first and most important opportunity is in investing in better business skills. Operating margins are becoming much more compressed and many installers do not have reliable information about those numbers. Hard to make decisions about running a business without reliable access to data and the ability to understand those numbers.
Steven Bushong says
Hi Pamela — which business skills are most important for installers to develop? Thanks!